Shelburne: Questions, answers change with age

Friday

Dec 27, 2013 at 9:54 PM

Did you read Katlynn Stockett's best-seller "The Help?" If so, you will remember the main character Aibelene, who kept house for the rich white folks and raised the kids they were too busy to care for.

I loved the scene were Aibelene was imparting some wisdom to sweet little Mae Mobley, who had just turned 3. The mammy told the toddler, "When you little, you only get asked two questions, what's your name and how old you is, so you better get 'em right."

Now that you've got over being 3 - now that you're 30, or 60, or a bunch more - what questions do people ask you?

After 20, we quit asking women their age, don't we? And, even if we do dare to ask, most of them quit answering us truthfully. But this final weekend of the year when we're taking down old calendars and hanging new ones does seem to be an appropriate time to broach some age-related questions.

Are you content to be your present age? Little kids always tell you the age they are about to be. "I'm almost 4 ... or 5 ... or 6," they say. Are you still in that mode, or would you like to turn the clock back a decade or so?

Has the year that is now vanishing been a productive year for you? Or do you wish that you had prayed along with Moses, "Teach me to use my few years doing what matters"?

If God gave you "d0 overs," what decision did you make this past year or what deed did you do that you would change?

Are you running out of calendar pages? King David prayed, "Lord, how long will I live?" He wanted to know, "When will I die?" (Psalm 39:4, TEV).

Does ending another year make you worry more about how long you have left?

No teenager can know it yet, but the longer any of us lives, the shorter life will seem to be. In the psalm I just quoted, David goes on to pray, "How short you have made my life!" Then he laments, "Every living man is no more than a puff of wind, no more than a shadow."

One of my good friends turned 101 this year. He's still sharper and more mobile than some who are half his age, but he would agree with the psalmist that those years have flown by.

Aibelene spoke the truth, and it's not just true for 3-year-olds. When somebody asks how old we are, we need to get it right.

Gene Shelburne is minister of the Anna Street Church of Christ, 2310 Anna St. Contact him at geneshel@aol.com, or get his books and magazines at www.annastreetchurch.com. His column appears at least monthly in the Faith section.

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